Emmy Fitri – Get a real person in the lead. That advice, often given to young journalists just starting out in the industry, is as true as ever.
A news story without a person at the heart of it often feels cold and impersonal. But a news event about a real person can inspire public admiration, shock or utter dismay. Those stories certainly keep people reading the paper or watching the news, anxious to see what will happen next.
Over the course of the year, the roster of newsmakers ranged from a persecuted working mother to a wanted terrorist, a socialite turned suffering princess to a politician at the height of his powers. Here are the people who made the news in 2009:
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. For years the quiet man of Indonesian politics, as a general he was never a controversial figure like some of his peers. As a cabinet minister, he quietly built a base for the future.
In 2009, the plans that Yudhoyono had made came to full fruition. His Democratic Party went from minor player in a ruling coalition in 2004 to a dominant force in the House of Representatives following April's legislative elections.
Yudhoyono's carefully crafted re-election campaign for president, using US-style media techniques, delivered a landslide victory in July. On the world stage, he played a major role behind the emergence of the G-20 group of the world's largest economies.
But Yudhoyono's young second term, inaugurated on Oct. 20, got off to a bumpy start with grand plans for the first 100 days overwhelmed by a bitter fight between the police and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), and intense political wrangling over the aftermath of the 2008 PT Bank Century bailout. As a result, the president has been criticized for being indecisiv e, too cautious and defensive in responding to the scandals. His task in 2010: regain the political initiative.
Sri Mulyani Indrawati. Perhaps the country's most widely respected technocrat abroad and a fierce slayer of bureaucratic untouchables at home, the so-called Iron Lady was considered a potential vice presidential candidate under Yudhoyono.
Retaining her post as finance minister in the new administration, she came under fire from a House special committee investigating the Bank Century bailout. She says she was only trying to protect the nation's banking system from failure.
The problem? Sri Mulyani said in a widely publicized interview that Golkar Party Chairman Aburizal Bakrie was behind the campaign to oust her. This one is far from over.
Boediono. A surprise pick for vice president, Boediono moved from central bank governor to No. 2 in the nation's hierarchy. But he is also under the gun from lawmakers over Bank Century.
Will he and Sri Mulyani hold firm? The outcome of this battle will likely determine the shape of the new administration.
Aburizal Bakrie. One of the country's richest men, tycoon Aburizal slipped quietly out of his cabinet role as chief welfare minister and into the post of Golkar chairman, following former Vice President Jusuf Kalla's defeat in the race for the presidency.
Aburizal's companies, meanwhile, moved steadily to take over a Newmont mining operation, while the tax department set about investigating missing payments. Concerning Sri Mulyani's charge that he wants her out? Aburizal says it's not true.
Prita Mulyasari. From a working mom to an icon for justice and freedom of expression, Prita became the year's poster girl for battling the big guys.
When the Tangerang native complained about poor service at Omni International Hospital in an e-mail to friends, the hospital fought back, accusing her of criminal libel under the controversial Information and Electronic Transaction (ITE) Law.
Prita was detained and tried, but her story sparked outrage and an outpouring of support on social networking site Facebook. She was released but eventually ordered to pay a Rp 204 million ($21,400) fine.
But that was no problem. Led by Facebook users, the public drummed up three times that amount in coins to cover the fine. The hospital finally relented. The lesson? Don't mess with moms.
Nasrudin Zulkarnaen. Few people had heard of this director of a state-run pharmaceutical company before he was murdered in a mafia-style drive-by shooting as he was leaving a Tangerang golf course on March 14.
Nasrudin's demise opened up a soap opera-like scandal involving a young golf caddie he had taken as a third wife and the chairman of the KPK, who is on trial for allegedly masterminding the crime.
Was it a love triangle gone horribly wrong, or something darker and more unsettling? Was there a "second team" of gunmen involved? Despite an initial trial that convicted the accused shooters in December, don't expect these questions to be settled in court. This has all the makings of a classic "grassy knoll" mystery.
Antasari Azhar. Accused of leading the conspiracy to murder Nasrudin over the affections of a young golf caddie, the high-flying KPK chairman is facing a very long time in jail.
His arrest and dismissal from his KPK post came after a tenure that saw numerous high-profile convictions of lawmakers, police officers, former central bank officials and businessmen. Was Antasari framed, as he claims?
Rani Juliani. The comely young golf caddie who was also the third wife of Nasrudin tantalized the media all year. Her testimony in the trial of Antasari for her husband's murder was too spicy for public consumption and was kept behind closed doors. There was a hotel room rendezvous with Antasari, an inaudible taped conversation of the pair, but little else of real substance. What was Rani doing in that hotel room and was it enough to provoke murder?
Anggodo Wijaya. The brother of a fugitive businessman on the run from corruption charges, his wiretapped telephone conversations with prosecutors and police officers were aired by the Constitutional Court to a rapt nationwide audience. They seemed to show that Anggodo was conspiring with police to allegedly frame two KPK deputy chairmen for abuse of power. The recordings undid the conspiracy, the deputy chairmen were exonerated and Anggodo is now in hot water. Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M Hamzah. The two KPK deputies found themselves arrested by police for abuse of power, threatened with jail and then freed and restored to office with astonishing speed.
After they were charged, they quickly become heroes with the public and the case became known as the battle between the gecko and the crocodile, with the KPK being the underdog in its fight against the police. It was all getting out of hand when the president finally "requested" the police and the Attorney General's Office stop the nonsense.
Susno Duadji. Once the National Police's chief detective, he seemed to be everywhere in 2009.
Susno was the target of a KPK wiretap. He was caught on tape holding discussions with Anggodo over the KPK deputies. He was named as a go-between in the aftermath of the Bank Century bailout. He fanned the KPK-police feud with his "gecko versus crocodile" analogy. Amid the mounting public anger, Susno was suspended from his post, reinstated and later permanently replaced.
Noordin M Top. The man suspected of being behind a string of terrorist attacks going back to the first Bali bombings in 2002, Noordin finally met his bloody end during a shoot-out with police at his hideout on the outskirts of Solo in September.
After the July 17 bombings of two luxury hotels in Jakarta, the hunt for the Malaysian terrorist took on renewed urgency. Noordin claimed to be the leader of Southeast Asia's chapter of Al Qaeda and he was known as a charismatic recruiter of young people to his deadly cause. Left unresolved by his death: Who is in charge of his network now?
The Mallarangengs. The three Mallarangeng brothers, Andi, Rizal and Choel, were among the architects of Yudhoyono's stunning electoral success, helping to craft an unbeatable image.
Andi was Yudhoyono's spokesman and despite some public slips – especially when he campaigned in Makassar, the hometown of the president's rival, Jusuf Kalla – effectively gave voice to his boss.
His brother Rizal, a master scholar in politics, joined Yudhoyono's camp after his own political ambitions were found wanting. Along with youngest brother Choel, Rizal ran Fox Indonesia, a US-style campaign think tank that guided the Yudhoyono machine.
The "Brothers M" are the targets of speculation, rumor and envy, but there is no quarreling with their electoral success.
Jusuf Kalla. Fast talking and ever ready with a sound bite, the former vice president's candor is missed now that he is gone. His ill-advised run against Yudhoyono under the Golkar banner never had much of a chance, but don't bet that Kalla is gone from the scene. He is a key witness in the Bank Century investigations and he may yet return to battle Aburizal for supremacy in Golkar.
Prabowo Subianto. The dark prince of the latter years of the Suharto era, former Gen. Prabowo returned to the public spotlight as the unlikely running mate of Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairwoman Megawati Sukarnoputri in the presidential election.
With his Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), Prabowo took a nationalist stance, obviously trying to appeal to the grass roots in a manner echoing former President Sukarno. A former Kopassus chief and a one-time Suharto son-in-law, Prabowo seems confident that he is again a force to be reckoned with.
Manohara Odelia Pinot. Mano, oh Mano. A teenage fashion model and minor celebrity, she vaulted into the public eye when she escaped from a supposedly fairy-tale marriage to a Malaysian prince, recounting shocking tales of domestic abuse.
The drama fueled endless rounds of TV talk shows and made Manohara a household name, helping to fuel anti-Malaysia sentiment in the process. By year's end, she had starred in her own TV soap opera and declared herself a campaigner against corruption. Not bad for a 17-year-old.
Luna Maya. Known for being a little harsh with gossip-peddling "infotainment" journalists, the singer and actress hit the roof after she was jostled by reporters at a movie premiere.
When she hit the Twitterverse with a tweet saying her tormentors in the media were "lower than prostitutes," the Indonesian Journalists Association (PWI) reported her to the police for defamation. Journalists wanting to jail someone for speaking their mind? Take a deep breath everybody.
Batik. We know it's not a person, but the art form that is our national fabric gained recognition from Unesco as part of the world's heritage on Oct. 2, prompting more people to don the cloth on Fridays to demonstrate national pride. Fashion-wise, batik is the new black, stylish like never before.